Yesterday’s amendment votes

By a single vote, 49-48, senators rejected amendments from Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., to allow government authorities to question immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to bring an end to the temporary guest worker program after five years.

The Senate also defeated, on a resounding 66-29 vote, a proposal by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to strike the path to citizenship laid out for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. …

Advocates for immigrants were also optimistic, but with some votes so close, they were cautious about their projections for upcoming amendments, voicing particular concern about a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to add to the list of criminal offenses that could prevent current undocumented immigrants from obtaining a Z visa to put them on the path to citizenship.

“Cornyn’s amendment is absolutely a killer,” said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. “It would basically say if you worked using a false social security number, which is by definition how (undocumented immigrants) work, that would make you ineligible.”